I’m a gardening pro – the mistake that’s eroding your soil and ditching it will save you loads of time during fall
A GARDENING pro has revealed a mistake that could be eroding your soil.
If you change your method, you could save loads of time during the fall.
Carrie Spoonemore, the co-creator of Park Seed’s From Seed to Spoon app, offered a gardening solution to Martha Stewart magazine.
People are correct to pull weeds and pluck diseased plants before winter.
The trick is to leave behind some debris and dead plants since they can be invaluably beneficial to the ecosystem of a garden.
“It’s important that the ground isn’t bare over winter,” Spoonemore told the magazine.
“Debris on the ground can prevent soil erosion by acting as a natural mulch to keep the soil in place,” she added to the outlet.
It will also mitigate the reduction of topsoil.
Dead plant material offers numerous benefits to the ecosystem.
It can act as shelter and food for animals, too, she said.
Some creatures use dead plants to keep warm during winter, added Craig Tufts, chief naturalist at the National Wildlife Federation.
“It gets kind of cold without that ‘down comforter,’ ” Tufts said, “which also provides the insects with protection from predators.”
The only time plant debris should be removed is if it’s diseased, according to Morning Chores
Diseased plants could infect healthy plants if they are left in the garden.
Leaving the debris also reduces trash.
In 2018, about 10.5 million tons of yard trimmings were deposited into landfills, per the United States Environmental Protection Agency.